What to expect at Initial CP conference?

[kh75]

My family are currently under s47 investigation due to disclosues of violence.
We have a confetence next week and Ijust wonder what the next steps might be. No idea what to expect.
Can anyone enlighten me?

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear Kh75

Welcome to Family Rights Group’s parents’ discussion board and thank you for your post. My name is Suzie and I am FRG’s online adviser. I am sorry to hear about the difficulties your family is currently experiencing.

As your initial child protection conference is due this week I wanted to send you some information to help you understand what this involves and to help you prepare.

First of all, here is an explanation of what happens at a child protection conference and afterwards and here are some tips on how you can prepare for the meeting. If you are a parent with a disability and would like an advocate to help you please see this information on advocacy. Similarly if you would like your child/ren to have an advocate you can find out more here.

You mention that the conference has been called because of allegations of violence. I am not sure if this relates to domestic violence or physical abuse of children. It is really important that you understand what the concerns are, what you can do to address them and what support there is to help you and your family. The focus must be on keeping the children safe from harm. It is also often a good idea to involve extended family members to help; you can think about whether a family group conference (FGC) may be helpful.

Here are some materials which explain more about why children’s services may be worried about domestic violence or physical abuse.

I know this advice is very general. If you would like to provide some more details about the situation I can try to provide more specific advice. Or you may prefer to ring the freephone advice service on 0808 8010366 to talk to an adviser. The lines are open from Mon to Fri, 9.30 am to 3.00 pm.

The most important thing for you to do now is to be willing to work with the professionals involved (children’s services, school, health, and any other relevant services) to reduce any identified risks to the child/ren and make any changes that are necessary. It is also an opportunity for you to say what you think your family needs to improve the situation. The conference will make a child protection plan if they decide that there is an ongoing risk of significant harm to the child/ren or a child in need plan if support/services are needed but there is no continuing risk of serious harm.

I hope this helps.

Best wishes

Suzie